Artist: Mannheim Steamroller
Part Number: 012805500128BT--Release: 09/12/2000
Record Label: American Gramaphone Records

Tracks:
--1: Prelude
--2: Chocolate Fudge
--3: Interlude I
--4: Sonata
--5: Interlude II
--6: Saras Band
--7: Fresh Aire
--8: Rondo
--9: Interlude III
--10: Pass The Keg (Lia)
--11: Interlude IV
--12: Mist

Notes: Mannheim Steamroller: Chip Davis (recorder, drums); Denny Schneider (trumpet); Bill Buntain (trombone); Jackson Berkey (keyboards); Eric Hansen (bass).

Engineers: Don Sears, Ron Ubel, Jeff Schiller.

Recorded at Sound Recorders Studios, Omaha, Nebraska & Kansas City, Missouri.

All tracks have been digitally remastered using HDCD technology.

New Age pioneers Mannheim Steamroller--a vehicle for composer Chip Davis--have been criticized for being derivative and worse, but no-one has ever said they lack ambition. FRESH AIRE I is the first in an eight-album series, four of which deal with the seasons of the year, the other four with mankind's curiosities.

These 12 instrumental selections tell the story of Spring from its own perspective. Musically, Davis set out to make the series as eclectic as possible. Tracks such as "Chocolate Fudge" and "Rondo" recall progressive rockers Emerson, Lake & Palmer, while other selections evoke the Baroque era, and, in the case of "Saras Band," medieval England.